Nine months ago, I wrote in this space about the growing popularity of Dry January and the broader category of no- and low-alcohol (NoLo) beverages. The NoLo trend continues. NielsenIQ reports that as of May, trailing 12-month sales of non-alcoholic spirits were up 116% year over year. Celebrities are starting to hop on the trend […]

For most Americans, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic happened abruptly.  In just a couple of weeks in the middle of March 2020, schools sent home their students, all sports were halted, and many stores, restaurants, and theaters closed their doors.  The start of the pandemic was neatly demarcated by these events, but now, years […]

With 11 celebrity brands launched so far in 2022, and celebrities including Hailey Bieber (rhode skin) and Scarlett Johansson (The Outset) making their first venture into the industry, it appears as though 2022 may be just as robust a year for celebrity beauty launches as 2021, which saw over 20 brands enter the market. The […]

Most finance professionals agree that nothing beats the discounted cash flow (DCF) method for valuing a business. This is because the method is based on projected cash generation and does not rely on comp sets that can often be not-so-comparable.  However, the most glaring flaw in DCF models can be best described by the phrase […]

What do Allbirds, Warby Parker, Chewy.com, and Peloton all have in common? First off, they are all digitally native direct to consumer (DTC) brands. Secondly, they all grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. DTC e-commerce has become increasingly popular over the past two decades, but the pandemic led to strongly accelerated […]